


An Unladylike Lady And A Vexxing Lord

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, Embarrassed Molly Hooper, Embarrassment, Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Fans, Happy Molly, Marriage Proposal, POV Molly Hooper, Pre-Relationship, Sherlock Has A Crush, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Fluff, Sincere Sherlock Holmes, Teasing, Victorian Molly Hooper, Victorian Sherlock Holmes, hand kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-03-22 22:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13774338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Margaret thinks she and Lord Holmes are forever destined to stay at odds, but Lord Holmes has other ideas for what their relationship should be.





	An Unladylike Lady And A Vexxing Lord

**Author's Note:**

> So this was inspired by [a fanart post](https://sweet-sweet-escape.tumblr.com/post/144180303831/umeko-sherlolly-lace-patterns-molly-lowering) by **[umeko-sherlolly](http://umeko-sherlolly.tumblr.com/post/144178394168)** that Kiki commented on, saying " _Molly lowering her fan to sneak peeks at Sherlock and blushing while he grins when he catches her in the act.. Again and again.._ " Hopefully this is what she would have hoped for!

She could never get the damnable fan gestures right. Her elder sisters had tried to teach her the acts of feminine wiles for nearly an age and she just did not comprehend how the fans worked. Oh, she could hide her intelligence with simple language, pleasant to the ear and full of airy nonsense, and she knew the language of the flowers that was all the rage well enough, but the fans?

Oh, in using fans to ensnare a suitor she was just a hopeless cause.

She was currently at the ball for her friend Mary Morstan, soon enough to be Mary Watson. She was a spinster, like her, but she had wealth to her name and had caught the eye of a pleasant gentleman by the name of Watson. John was fair of hair and had eyes that twinkled, but Mary had said his history in the great battles had left him scarred in ways that weren’t physical, but that she, with the secrets few were privy to, suited well with him. When he offered her his hand, she accepted without hesitation.

Margaret was quite happy for her dear friend, she was, but she herself felt it was a mournful occasion, in its way. Margaret, who went by “Molly” to her closest friends, was the last of the lot without a betrothal. She had thought, perhaps, that Watson’s friend Holmes might have had his eye on her, but--

 _But let us never speak of my disastrous attempts to get his attention,_ she thought to herself as the pitying voice inside her head spoke at fullest volume. No, Margaret had felt more like a fool than a lady in the company of Lord Holmes. Lord! He was a Lord and she could just _barely_ have acted her own age in his presence. She thought the man damnably attractive but utterly oblivious, and soon attraction had turned to irritation and his mere presence had rubbed her raw.

No, let the record state that he, not her, was fairly responsible for...well, for all the disasters that occurred when in each other’s presence.

She felt a gaze on her and looked to see the man in question looking directly at her, standing taller than most of the ton who was at the ball. Even in this crush, it felt like he was looking directly at her. But she must be mistaken! Perhaps he was looking at one of the other ladies in the alcove with her. Miss Janine Hawkins, surely, or perhaps Miss Sarah Sawyer. Not _her_.

She raised her fan higher and then, somehow still feeling his piercing gaze, lowered it to glance at him. No longer content simply to stare, he was _grinning_. Grinning like a fool! She raised the fan again, only to lower it and see Lord Holmes was walking towards them. She kept raising the fan and lowering it with every few steps he took, and though she was some sort of automaton stuck in a rut.

“I am going to speak to you, Miss Hooper, and I would prefer it be without a fan in front of your face.”

Janine and Sarah giggled and made their way out of the alcove, brushing past Lord Holmes until it was simply the two of them alone. She was old enough to be someone’s governess or paid companion, far too old to need a chaperone, but by the piercing gaze and teasing smile on his face, Lord knew she wished there was one about. Hesitantly, she lowered her fan and placed it in her lap, setting her gloved hands over it. “Why on earth would you wish to speak to me, Lord Holmes?” she blurted out before her senses took hold and she found a reason to excuse herself.

“You intrigue me.”

She gaped at him, in a way that was most unladylike, but she couldn’t believe what he had said, the words he had spoken. “ _I_ intrigue you? Surely you jest. I’ve been nothing but...but an annoyance!”

“And a most beguiling one,” he said. “Truth be told, I have enjoyed our conversations, even if they did verge on verbal assault.” He set his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward, crowding into her part of the tiny alcove. Suddenly she felt more silent than she had in an age. “Tell me, do you usually hide your sharp tongue from others?”

“I’ve been told it’s unbecoming of a lady,” she said.

“Most ladies, yes. But not, perhaps, the one I’d like to have as a wife.”

Now her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. “Wife?” she got out, her voice strangled.

“You have run through the corridors of my mind for nearly two months now, Miss Hooper. And my dreams for the past fortnight. But I do not want to ask for your hand if it’s not something you would be agreeable to. I know I seem the most vexing of gentlemen, but I assure you, for you, I would be whatever you want me to be.” The teasing quality was gone from his smile and hesitantly, he reached over to take her hand. “I will change the very core of me being if it would please you.”

She felt the warmth radiating from his fingers and looked up. Truth be told as much as he _could_ be irritating and vexing, there were moments where he wasn’t and moments where she could see what a good man he was beneath the surface he chose to show to the world. She slowly turned her hand palm upward and grasped his tightly. “I will accept, Lord Holmes, but only on one condition.”

“Anything,” he said.

“I will marry you only if you do not change in the slightest.” 

The slow smile that spread on his face was more beautiful than the setting sun, and he raised their hands and turned them so he could kiss hers. “Done,” he said, and so she smiled in return and considered it fortunate enough to have found someone who loved her for her, and not for all the feminine wiles she simply could not learn. To be loved for herself was, truly, a most magnificent gift, and she was glad Lord Holmes was the one to give it to her.


End file.
